Disruptive Stages

Conversations about the ideas that disrupt and transform the performing arts. Each episode features an interview with an artist or performing arts scholar that delves into how innovators challenge the boundaries of their art forms. Interdisciplinary artists and work, such as opera, music theater, multimedia performance art, and dance theater; cross-cultural perspectives and historically marginalized voices are in focus. Hosted by Jennifer Williams. Original photo credit: Fay Fox... Show More

Episodes

Sarah Kirkland Snider: Composing Against the Grain

August 3, 2020 • 46 min

Jennifer Williams interviews composer Sarah Kirkland Snider. Deemed “one of the decade’s more gifted, up-and-coming modern classical composers” (Pitchfork), “a potentially significant voice on the American music landscape” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and “an important representative of 21st century trends in composition” (New York Classical Review), she has received commissions and performances from the New York Philharmonic, San Fran...

Mark as Played

Niloufar Nourbakhsh: Composing Heroism, Reimagining Technology and Championing Iranian Female Composers

July 28, 2020 • 45 min

Jennifer Williams interviews composer, pianist and educator Niloufar Nourbakhsh – winner of the 2nd Hildegard Competition, recipient of a 2019 Female Discovery Grant from OPERA America, and a founding member and co-director of the Iranian Female Composers Association. We discuss the unwilling hero in her new work, “We the Innumerable;” her new perspectives on the future of technology in music; current developments in Iran’s opera s...

Mark as Played

Derrell Acon - New Perspectives on Verdi, Blacktivism, and Artistic Leadership

July 23, 2020 • 41 min

Jennifer Williams interviews performer, teacher and activist Dr. Derrell Acon. A Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Acon received an Andrew W. Mellon grant for his work on Verdian scholarship and performance. His most recent scholarship on Blacktivism and the power of performance education has been presented around the country, and he is well-known for his groundbreaking work as an activist on the subject matter of race and equity. He also enj...

Mark as Played

Kamala Sankaram: Composing for the Technological Revolution

June 17, 2020 • 35 min

Jennifer Williams interviews Kamala Sankaram, acclaimed composer of the first Zoom opera (All decisions will be made by consensus) as well as commissions from Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, and Beth Morrison Projects, among many others. The diverse media for which she has written include virtual and augmented reality; multimedia installations; and her operatic Bollywood surf ensemble, Bombay Rickey. We discuss the ...

Mark as Played

Laura Kaminsky: Transgender Stories on the Operatic Stage

June 8, 2020 • 43 min

Jennifer Williams interviews Laura Kaminsky, acclaimed composer of As One, the first opera about a transgender protagonist. Since its premiere in 2014 by American Opera Projects at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, As One quickly became the most frequently produced new opera in North America. We discuss the genesis of her landmark work and how an artist can expand the narrative of the human experience we see and hear on stage. --- ...

Mark as Played

Manual Cinema: Chicago’s Emmy-Winning Collective on Pioneering a New Art Form

May 15, 2020 • 32 min

An interview with interdisciplinary artist Sarah Fornace and composer Ben Kauffman of Manual Cinema, Chicago’s Emmy Award-winning performance collective. We discuss the essential role of collaboration in their work, the genesis of a new form of multimedia immersive storytelling, and how they uniquely fuse technology and live performance. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anch...

Mark as Played

Alberto Varon: Contemporary Latinx Opera

April 30, 2020 • 34 min

A conversation with Alberto Varon, Associate Professor of English and Latino Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. We discuss the disruption of genre, gender and the idea of borders in contemporary Latinx opera.

Mark as Played

Ben Barson & Gizelxanath Rodriguez: Mirror Butterfly, The Migrant Liberation Movement Suite

April 8, 2020 • 52 min

Composer Ben Barson and vocalist Gizelxanath Rodriguez, co-creators of the global jazz opera, Mirror Butterfly: The Migrant Liberation Movement Suite, discuss the role of artists as activists and the possibility of an intersectional conversation about colonialism’s lasting impact on the environment. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Mark as Played

Kirsten Paige: Wagner and Environmentalism

March 27, 2020 • 39 min

An interview with Dr. Kirsten Paige, musicologist and THINK Fellow at Stanford University, on how Wagner assimilated 19th-century climate theory into his music dramas, stage technology at Bayreuth, and concept of "the total work of art." --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Mark as Played

Disruptive Stages (Trailer)

March 26, 2020 • 48 sec

Mark as Played